Thursday, October 25, 2018

This weeks topic is History. Let's take a look at what is written about the past.

I suspect most of us take history for granted when we are in school. Many are even bored by history. That is a pity because most people are not even aware of real history. History is written by the winners. It includes the built-in bias of the winners and so most history is spun to reflect the winners point of view. I'd wager it is safe to say there is as much unsaid as is logged and labeled history.

It has become fashionable these days to speak in glowing terms of the people who drove the engine of industry that grew the USA into the titan it is today. We have conveniently forgotten they were called Robber Barons for reason. Robber baron - a person who has become rich through ruthless and unscrupulous business practices (originally with reference to prominent US businessmen in the late 19th century). These days the current version typically runs a large investment fund. But little is said about our robber baron history.Take a look at Native Americans - without doubt one of the most repressed groups in history. Take a look at the term genocide - the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. What happened to Native Americans at the direction of the US government was genocide but rarely is the term used. Now we grumble about the gambling facilities built on tribal lands. Giving the tribes sovereignty over the land we so graciously gave up in treaty after treaty was fine as long as the land was useless but when the tribes found a way to get something of value, many were not pleased. Our treatment of Native Americans is nothing short of blatant racism.

Winston Churchill - the great statesman from the UK is looked upon as a racist war criminal to people in India. Blogger Aman Spandan says "Churchill was a staunch imperialist who never wanted India to be independent. He had expressed his disgust at 'a half naked fakir parleying with the British' when Mahatma Gandhi attended the Round Table Conference. Again, as the British PM, he refused to talk about granting India independence, saying he had not 'become His Majesty's first minister to preside over the liquidation of the British empire'. So, his other qualities apart, Churchill was no friend of India and it is natural for Indians to have no love for him.

During the devastating Bengal famine, it was the abominable Churchill who refused to divert food grain produced by Indians to save starving Indians.

By 1943 hordes of starving people were flooding into Calcutta, most dying on the streets."

That is a significant chunk of history to gloss over when discussing Churchill.

History you probably were not taught in school ............

Did you know that Joe Kennedy Sr - patriarch of the Kennedy clan was an anti Semite and Nazi sympathizer?

After Pope Gregory IX associated cats with devil worship, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves. This sudden lack of cats led to the spread of disease because infected rats ran free. The most devastating of these diseases,the Bubonic Plague, killed 100 million people. Karma

Beginning in 1909 (and continuing into the 1970s), the Australian government instituted a policy of removing Aboriginal childrenfrom their parents and teaching them to reject their Aboriginality.

African-American men were not deemed equal members of the Mormon Church until 1978. This was not a pure "color" issue as there were Polynesians who were never excluded, but interestingly enough BYU developed a nationally ranked football team shortly after the Mormon church president spoke to God and this change happened. Coincidence? Probably. Read about this "revelation" in Wikipedia here.

After finding a 36,000 year old steppe bison preserved in the ice, Alaskan zoology professor R. Dale Guthrie and his team ate some of its flesh. Guthrie said "the meat was well aged but still a little tough." They should have cooked it low and slow.

The Spanish Inquisition issued a death sentence to all of the residents of the Netherlands.

BeforeAbraham Lincoln became a politician, he was a champion wrestler. With more than 300 bouts under his belt, Lincoln only lost one match in his career and was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall Of Fame in 1992.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima when the first atom bomb was dropped. He then traveled home to Nagasaki the day before the second atom bomb was dropped. He survived both and lived to be 93.

During the 1800s in the United States, it was considered a cruel and unusual punishment to feed lobster to prisoners and convicts.

When the American Civil War started, Confederate Robert E. Lee owned no slaves. Union general U.S. Grant did.

When famed scientist Nikola Tesla passed away, many of his private documents, possibly including a blueprint for a hypothetical time machine, were viewed by scientist John G. Trump, who happens to be the uncle of President Donald Trump.

President Lyndon B. Johnson held many important meetings, including press briefings, from the White House toilet. In fact, he even had a phone installed in the bathroom so he could regularly save time and kill two birds with one stone

One cannot help but wonder how historians will view POTUS 45 when his story is written. Clearly the mainstream media has chronicled his continual lies and in spite Trump's protestations, he should go down in history as the greatest liar of all time. That is going to blow these lists up and make for some sad, fun reading.

That concludes this weeks fun with history post. I must admit my original intent was to do a heavier piece focusing on the dark side of history. Maybe some other time. Be sure to check Ramana's Musings to see what his take on history is. See ya next week, same Bat time, same Bat channel.

13 of 56

One of history's most successful pirates was a Chinese prostitute named Ching Shih. She commanded a fleet of over 1,500 ships and 80,000 sailors.

14 of 56

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima when the first atom bomb was dropped. He then traveled home to Nagasaki the day before the second atom bomb was dropped. He survived both and lived to be 93.

15 of 56

Roman Emperor Gaius, also known as Caligula, made one of his favorite horses a senator.

16 of 56

On his death bed, Voltaire was asked to renounce Satan by a visiting priest. He replied, "This is no time to be making new enemies."

17 of 56

The town of Salem, New Jersey once held a trial against tomatoes in 1820 because of the widespread belief they were poisonous. The case ended after Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson ate a basket of tomatoes without ill consequence.

18 of 56

While Pope Gregory IX was in power, he declared that cats were associated with devil worship and had them exterminated across Europe. It's believed that the disappearance of cats helped rats proliferate and spread the bubonic plague.

19 of 56

Potatoes were only introduced to Ireland in the late 1500s after being discovered by Spanish Conquistadors in Peru.

20 of 56

Jeanette Rankin became the first female member of Congress in America in 1916, four years before women were given the right to vote.

21 of 56

Despite popular rumors, Elvis Presley had severe constipation that plagued him throughout his life. He actually died while pooping because of a condition called "megacolon."

22 of 56

In 1942, the U.S. Army fired 1,400 anti-aircraft rounds during what was thought to be a Japanese air raid over Los Angeles County. It turned out to be a false alarm. Five civilians died as an indirect result.

23 of 56

In 1493, Columbus thought he saw mermaids -- they were "not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men." It's suspected he saw a manatee.

24 of 56

At the height of his popularity, Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like competition in San Francisco. He came in 20th place.

25 of 56

Chickens may have been first domesticated by humans for cockfighting, not for food.

26 of 56

History's shortest war was between England and Zanzibar. It lasted only 38 minutes.

27 of 56

During the 1800s in the United States, it was considered a cruel and unusual punishment to feed lobster to prisoners and convicts.

28 of 56

Fourteen years before the Titanic sank, Morgan Robertsonwrote the novella Futility. It was about the large unsinkable ship "Titan" hitting an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic. Both the Titanic and the fictional Titan did not have enough lifeboats for the thousands of passengers on board.

29 of 56

Thomas Edison once electrocuted a circus elephant to death on Coney Island. Over a thousand people came to watch her die while Edison recorded it on video.

30 of 56

Before the 19th century, dentures were commonly made with teeth pulled from the mouths of dead soldiers.

31 of 56

In 1998, 1,200 bones from some ten human bodies were found in the basement of Ben Franklin's house. The bodies were used in the study of human anatomy, scholars believe.

32 of 56

Between the 11th and 19th centuries, Buddhist monks in northern Japan practiced a kind of meditation called Sokushinbutsu, in which they would mummify themselves alive by slowly weaning themselves off food and water before eventually starving to death.

33 of 56

Seven of the ten deadliest wars in human history have been in China. The Taiping Rebellion alone had twice as many deaths as World War 1.

The smallest Major League Baseball player of all time was 3'7" Eddie Gaedel. He walked in his only plate appearance.

40 of 56

President William Henry Harrison served the shortest term in U.S. history. He died of a cold just two months into his presidency. Doctors have him traditional treatments like leeches, opium, and snakeweed, which contributed to his death.

41 of 56

In 1945, a balloon bomb launched by Japan landed in Oregon. It was happened upon by a woman and five children, who died when it exploded. These were the only World War 2 casualties on US soil after America entered the war.

42 of 56

In 1929, researchers at Princeton University turned a living cat into a telephone.

43 of 56

The name "Nazi" was taken from pre-existing slang for a backward peasant. The term was popularized by Hitler's opponents and was rarely used by Nazis themselves.

44 of 56

Serial killer Ted Bundy once saved a young child from drowning and also received a commendation from the Seattle Police Department for chasing down a purse snatcher.

The Civil War began on the farm of Wilmer McLean, who then moved more than a hundred miles away to escape the fighting, only to have the war end inside his new house at Appomattox.

47 of 56

One of history's longest wars likely lasted for 335 years and was between the Netherlands and the Isles of Sicily. Not a single person was killed.

48 of 56

Romans used urine as mouthwash. Urine contains ammonia, which is one of the best natural cleaning agents on the planet.

49 of 56

The current 50 star U.S. flag was designed by 17-year-old Robert Heft for a school project. He received a B-.

50 of 56

A passenger who lived through the traumatic fire and sinking of a ship in 1871 faced his fears and boarded the Titanic in 1912. He sank with the ship.

51 of 56

In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, a book about four crewmen on a whaling ship who ended up stranded and having to draw lots to see who would be eaten. The lot landed on a cabin boy named Richard Parker. Forty-six years later, a yacht named Mignonette bound for Sydney, Australia capsized en route from London. The three crewmen then killed and ate their cabin boy named Richard Parker.

52 of 56

A would-be assassin threw a grenade at George W. Bush in 2005, but it didn't explode.

53 of 56

People were buried alive so often in the 19th century that a safety coffin was invented so the "dead" would have the ability to alert those above ground if they were still alive.

54 of 56

Civil War soldiers on both sides were offered bounties upon enlistment, causing some men to enlist and escape again and again in order to collect multiple bounties. One man collected 32 before he was finally caught.

55 of 56

Lord Byron kept a pet bear in his dorm room while studying at Cambridge University.

Before Abraham Lincoln became a politician, he was a champion wrestler. With more than 300 bouts under his belt, Lincoln only lost one match in his career and was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall Of Fame in 1997 of 5Until the early 20th century in Mongolia, criminals could belocked up in a wooden boxas punishment, sometimes left to die of starvation8 of 56

In the Victorian era, it was popular for people to photograph relatives after they had died, often placing them in lifelike poses.

In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won a race at Belmont Park in New York despite being dead. He suffered a heart attack mid-race, but his body stayed in the saddle until his horse crossed the line for a 20-1 outsider victory.

11 of 56

All British tanks since 1945 have included equipment to make tea.

12 of 56

Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were all nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

13 of 56

One of history's most successful pirates was a Chinese prostitute named Ching Shih. She commanded a fleet of over 1,500 ships and 80,000 sailors.

14 of 56

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima when the first atom bomb was dropped. He then traveled home to Nagasaki the day before the second atom bomb was dropped. He survived both and lived to be 93.

15 of 56

Roman Emperor Gaius, also known as Caligula, made one of his favorite horses a senator.

16 of 56

On his death bed, Voltaire was asked to renounce Satan by a visiting priest. He replied, "This is no time to be making new enemies."

17 of 56

The town of Salem, New Jersey once held a trial against tomatoes in 1820 because of the widespread belief they were poisonous. The case ended after Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson ate a basket of tomatoes without ill consequence.

18 of 56

While Pope Gregory IX was in power, he declared that cats were associated with devil worship and had them exterminated across Europe. It's believed that the disappearance of cats helped rats proliferate and spread the bubonic plague.

19 of 56

Potatoes were only introduced to Ireland in the late 1500s after being discovered by Spanish Conquistadors in Peru.

20 of 56

Jeanette Rankin became the first female member of Congress in America in 1916, four years before women were given the right to vote.

21 of 56

Despite popular rumors, Elvis Presley had severe constipation that plagued him throughout his life. He actually died while pooping because of a condition called "megacolon."

22 of 56

In 1942, the U.S. Army fired 1,400 anti-aircraft rounds during what was thought to be a Japanese air raid over Los Angeles County. It turned out to be a false alarm. Five civilians died as an indirect result.

23 of 56

In 1493, Columbus thought he saw mermaids -- they were "not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men." It's suspected he saw a manatee.

24 of 56

At the height of his popularity, Charlie Chaplin entered a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like competition in San Francisco. He came in 20th place.

25 of 56

Chickens may have been first domesticated by humans for cockfighting, not for food.

26 of 56

History's shortest war was between England and Zanzibar. It lasted only 38 minutes.

27 of 56

During the 1800s in the United States, it was considered a cruel and unusual punishment to feed lobster to prisoners and convicts.

28 of 56

Fourteen years before the Titanic sank, Morgan Robertsonwrote the novella Futility. It was about the large unsinkable ship "Titan" hitting an iceberg in the Northern Atlantic. Both the Titanic and the fictional Titan did not have enough lifeboats for the thousands of passengers on board.

29 of 56

Thomas Edison once electrocuted a circus elephant to death on Coney Island. Over a thousand people came to watch her die while Edison recorded it on video.

30 of 56

Before the 19th century, dentures were commonly made with teeth pulled from the mouths of dead soldiers.

31 of 56

In 1998, 1,200 bones from some ten human bodies were found in the basement of Ben Franklin's house. The bodies were used in the study of human anatomy, scholars believe.

32 of 56

Between the 11th and 19th centuries, Buddhist monks in northern Japan practiced a kind of meditation called Sokushinbutsu, in which they would mummify themselves alive by slowly weaning themselves off food and water before eventually starving to death.

33 of 56

Seven of the ten deadliest wars in human history have been in China. The Taiping Rebellion alone had twice as many deaths as World War 1.

The smallest Major League Baseball player of all time was 3'7" Eddie Gaedel. He walked in his only plate appearance.

40 of 56

President William Henry Harrison served the shortest term in U.S. history. He died of a cold just two months into his presidency. Doctors have him traditional treatments like leeches, opium, and snakeweed, which contributed to his death.

41 of 56

In 1945, a balloon bomb launched by Japan landed in Oregon. It was happened upon by a woman and five children, who died when it exploded. These were the only World War 2 casualties on US soil after America entered the war.

42 of 56

In 1929, researchers at Princeton University turned a living cat into a telephone.

43 of 56

The name "Nazi" was taken from pre-existing slang for a backward peasant. The term was popularized by Hitler's opponents and was rarely used by Nazis themselves.

44 of 56

Serial killer Ted Bundy once saved a young child from drowning and also received a commendation from the Seattle Police Department for chasing down a purse snatcher.

The Civil War began on the farm of Wilmer McLean, who then moved more than a hundred miles away to escape the fighting, only to have the war end inside his new house at Appomattox.

47 of 56

One of history's longest wars likely lasted for 335 years and was between the Netherlands and the Isles of Sicily. Not a single person was killed.

48 of 56

Romans used urine as mouthwash. Urine contains ammonia, which is one of the best natural cleaning agents on the planet.

49 of 56

The current 50 star U.S. flag was designed by 17-year-old Robert Heft for a school project. He received a B-.

50 of 56

A passenger who lived through the traumatic fire and sinking of a ship in 1871 faced his fears and boarded the Titanic in 1912. He sank with the ship.

51 of 56

In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, a book about four crewmen on a whaling ship who ended up stranded and having to draw lots to see who would be eaten. The lot landed on a cabin boy named Richard Parker. Forty-six years later, a yacht named Mignonette bound for Sydney, Australia capsized en route from London. The three crewmen then killed and ate their cabin boy named Richard Parker.

52 of 56

A would-be assassin threw a grenade at George W. Bush in 2005, but it didn't explode.

53 of 56

People were buried alive so often in the 19th century that a safety coffin was invented so the "dead" would have the ability to alert those above ground if they were still alive.

54 of 56

Civil War soldiers on both sides were offered bounties upon enlistment, causing some men to enlist and escape again and again in order to collect multiple bounties. One man collected 32 before he was finally caught.

55 of 56

Lord Byron kept a pet bear in his dorm room while studying at Cambridge University.